Tuesday, December 2, 2008

I find the following clip very disturbing. This is beyond Bible college weird, and that's saying something. I can't help but think that I'm missing key information as I watch it. Some thing's got him riled up. Watch the clip* and answer this question:

What in the world is this kid preaching about?

*Stacy From Louisville will not be responsible for adverse effects of repeatedly watching this video. Prolonged exposure may cause skin burning, ticks and twitching, spontaneous speaking in tongues during work hours, nightmares, and blindness from degenerated retinas (similar to staring into an eclipse or watching UFOs). Should these symptoms persist please contact Eastern KY Pastor via the comment section.

Yeah, the whole time I was watching this it just made me uncomfortable. I mean, the way that people were calling out - did they think this toddler was preaching in tongues, or were they just egging him on because they thought he was being cute and imitating the preacher? (Who, by the way, I'm guessing is his daddy.) Also, this is kind of neither here nor there, but I'm not real into preachers who preach like that - and that kid is clearly doing what he has seen other preacher(s) do.

wv: dunki: youth group slang for being baptized

"Dude, I met Jesus in a personal way this morning. I'm going to talk to the pastor about getting my dunki on."

I must be freaky. I was not as disturbed by a congregation that lets a baby babble at a microphone as I am by congregations without a nursery giving awkward glances to people whose babies aren't ready to be quiet in Church. (It's not that I am for baby preaching, it just doesn't really disturb me.)

Maybe the people are clapping because the child hadn't uttered any words before. I don't know but I do know that when my oldest was 9 months old and she saw me use a microphone for something I was doing for a Christmas pageant, she did the same thing. She is now 20 years old and doesn't do it anymore, I think it would be disturbing if she did. hee, hee

My dad thought this clip was really funny and sent it to me and the guy i was dating at the time (who happened to be a pastor). Well, preacher boy got his knickers in a twist over it. More than slightly disturbed, i'd say. i wasn't in love or hate with it, but i could see his reason for consternation when he pointed out the "Praise Jesus" background responses and i read all the commentary beneath. Very strange indeed.

Two of my coworkers emailed this to me awhile back and I must say, I was more uncomfortable than amused. It just seems like the kid is imitating what he's seen and heard on the pulpit. I find it quite bizarre. Of course, I'm Baptist and no one preaches like that where I go to church! :)

MAYBE....he isn't preaching at all, MAYBE all the kid's family has gathered together to see the progress he has made in speech therapy over the last several months. Everyone is so proud they're clapping and cheering! I'm just sayin', it could happen...josista

Glad to see that no one was tramatized by this. I haven't figured out how to lay hands on someone online - yet.

I've seen this a couple of times. I really don't think it's funny, but that might be due to my having a different style of humor.

Yet, judging from the level of applause and the set up on the platform, this is clearly not part of a normal worship service. Probably family goofing around and like others have said, the kid is just mimmicking what he has seen. Not my cup of tea, but, it's also not my church.

If anything bothers me about it, it's the lack of reverence for God's things. I may be old fashioned about this, but I think the sanctuary of a church should be considered sacred. This is the place that has been set aside for people to have an encounter with Jesus. This is the place where we come to be changed. What happens at church isn't some trivial thing. Life altering events happen here. I'm not saying treat the sanctuary as a shrine, but to consider it a sacred place - a special place. I humbly submit that much of the spiritual dissatisfaction the world and the religious community have with Church stem from an overall lack of reverence. It would be hard for me to take you seriously, when you claim to meet the Creator of all the universe in your meetings and you not act like it was not that big a deal.

And when you look at how Israel treated the Temple during the OT era, you see a direct correlation to the spiritual condition of the nation. When they were close to God, the Temple was being properly maintained. When they were far away, the Temple fell into disrepair or was used for disrespectful things. Does that correlation hold true with this church? There is no way for me to know. But, does this correlation hold true for the American Church? You be the judge of that.

Kids are going to copy what they have seen. It's part of growing up. How else would you learn to walk or talk if you hadn't seen it or heard it? I'm hoping this was for some funny talent show and the "Thank You Jesus" was his mom and was so filled with laughter and happiness from her kid having so much fun on stage, winning the show! Or just thanking Jesus for the innocence of a child, but after a while it did feel a bit creepy. Like they shouldn't have let it go on SOooooooo long. And I just wonder what they thought he was really doing.

I found this clip to be really disturbing when I saw it a few months ago and it still kind of haunts me. It's interesting that the kid does that sort of pentecostal, hold the microphone behind you and hop motion I've seen way too much on Christian t.v.. I couldn't figure out exactly what was bugging me about it at first after getting over being totally creeped out, but as I thought about it more it was sad that the kid pick up all that HYPER RELIGIOUS modeling so early.

I could only watch about 29 seconds as it sounds like baby babble fit throwing with a microphone. Didn't need more than that. And if he has preaching in his future it will develop into a God given gift and not a freakshow. Shame on the parents though for letting that go on.

reminds me of a story my parents tell me about when I was younger - The music minister's son and I had gotten up on stage after service, and the music minister's son started singing into the microphones - I, son of the sound tech, said "check 1, 2, 3"